Medal of Honor (Undaunted Valor 2)

03/31/71 SP5 Philip B. Terrill POW/MIA

MACV Advisor Team 22

03/31/71 SFC James Salley Jr. POW/MIA

I have attempted to identify the three advisors that were killed by a satchel charge the evening prior to the ground attack. I have been unsuccessful in that endeavor.

Acknowledgments

My thanks to the many men who provided me with the necessary information so I could write this account of Chicken-man’s actions. I know for some, it was painful recounting events that happened so long ago. I would like to especially thank Adan Salazar and Frank Salazar, Alston Gore, Mike Patterson, Mike Kelly, Jim Guidone and Bruce Sinkey as well as Bill Hess for the details of several events. Thanks to Chuck Stevens for giving me a history lesson on the early years and the deployment to Vietnam for the unit. I hope that I have told their story and done them and others justice, especially those that gave all. I wish I would have gotten to know them. Thanks to Momir Borocki at [email protected] for the exceptional cover design. Give the man an idea and he creates covers that instantly tell the story. My words are inadequate and therefore maps are needed to adequately portray locations and distances. Thanks to Infidum, LLC (www.infidiun.net), who took my hand-drawn maps and turned them into incredible pieces. I have yet to figure out how to format a work, so I have turned to Polgarus Studio to dress up the final product and they have done it very well. As ever, thanks to Ms. Eliza Dee for editing and suggestions. I should have paid better attention in English class. To Pattie Christesen, Mike Boswell, Jeff Thermond and James Cloore for proofreading and pointing out what was written versus what I was seeing. Thanks to my mentor, James Rosone, whose own works got me moving in the right direction, and Desire Holt for her encouragement. A very special thanks to Colonel John Adams, USMC (Ret) for sharing insights about his father. As always, thanks to my wife for putting up with me all these years and through all the rewrites.

Notes

1 The Medal of Honor is erroneously referred to frequently as the Congressional Medal of Honor when in fact it is just the Medal of Honor because it is presented in the name of Congress.

2 Aircraft commanders, ACs, flew left seat in our unit.

3 Dorsey didn’t know it at the time, but he had a relative who worked in the Division personnel office who was looking out for him and had him placed in this aviation assignment. Before Dorsey’s tour was over, he would get to serve in the infantry.

4 In Volume 1, I misspelled Ritchie’s name and wish to make that corrections here to honor his memory. Sorry, Owen.

5 It is very common in the military for last names to be used amongst equals.

6 A hover hole was an opening in the triple-canopy jungle about the diameter of a helicopter’s rotor blades and tail rotor. The helicopter could maneuver down at a hover to bring supplies to the infantry. Frequently a hover hole in this area was 200–300 feet deep, and the aircraft often had to be maneuvered under tree limbs to complete the mission.

7 Each piece of equipment in the Army has an operator’s manual, which is referred to as the -10. For the UH-1D and UH-1H helicopters, it is formally known as TM55-1520-210-10. TM stands for Technical Manual.

8 US Army Field Manual 6-30 outlines the proper procedures for making a call for artillery fire request.

9 Danger close is called when the rounds from artillery will be impacting with 750 meters of friendly troops.

10 In the 1960s, the dangers of Agent Orange defoliant to the human body were not known.

11 The Stars and Stripes newspaper did not have obituaries.

12 Willie Pete is a white phosphorus artillery round that on impact makes a large white smoke cloud and indicates that the artillery has fired its last round.

13 J.D. Coleman, ed., The 1st Air Cavalry Division: Vietnam, August 1965 to December 1969 (Tokyo: Dia Nippon Printing Company,1970), 26.

14 Vietnamese beer.

15 Mr. Spade was honorably discharged for his service at the end of his tour. He retired as a CEO for a computer company.

16 Pronounced as “Die We.”

17 Mike Kelly would go on to become a warrant officer pilot and commercial jet pilot.

18 Contour flight is flying as fast as possible while hugging the terrain. Low-level flight is constant airspeed, constant altitude.

19 Peter Pilot was a slang term for right-seat pilot or new-in-country pilot.

20 Pogey bait is a term for junk food.

21 Europe was receiving soldiers from Vietnam that still had time on their enlistments, and their morale was less than satisfactory. In some locations, duty officer

s carried sidearms.

22 Night of the Living Dead was the classic zombie movie and scared all of us.